


No Hard Feelings

by nicnac363



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-08
Updated: 2017-05-08
Packaged: 2018-10-29 18:04:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10859232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nicnac363/pseuds/nicnac363
Summary: The Akuma Prevention Program (APP) was established by Mayor Bourgeois to improve the emotional health and psychological wellbeing of all Parisians. Though a huge success at reducing the overall number of akuma, the program is taking a decided toll on Marinette’s love life. Forced therapy-induced exposure is helping to re-kindle her feelings for a certain blonde, ex-model. Feelings Ladybug’s leather clad, Catboy boyfriend will not be happy about. Or will he? [Oneshot] Rated T for profanity, some PG-13 smooching, and a not-so-vague reference to sex.





	No Hard Feelings

_'You can do this.'_

As part of what had now become a Friday afternoon ritual, 21-year-old Marinette Dupain-Chang was currently standing outside of one of the community center classroom doors trying to psych herself up for her weekly torture session.

Last election cycle, Mayor Bourgeois had been re-elected to office by the skin of his teeth and, as a result, had immediately hired a fresh-faced public relations consultant to help ensure such a close vote never occurred again. 

The PR consultant, formerly known as Stormy Weather, had come up with a brilliant plan for improving the mayor's image: a new public health initiative. 

Referred to as APP, the Akuma Prevention Program was developed as a means of "fortifying the mental resiliency of the Parisian populace to decrease the probability of citizens succumbing to negativity, thereby lowering the city's overall susceptibility to Hawkmoth's influence." In laymen's terms, APP was established to improve the emotional health and psychological wellbeing of all Parisians in an attempt to prevent akuma.

The first aspect of the program was a yearlong series of government-funded seminars, workshops, and small group sessions that taught attendees how to cope with and/or find healthy outlets for negative emotions before Hawkmoth could use the feelings as a honing beacon for his akuma. All citizens who were not currently enrolled in either nursery, primary, middle, or secondary school were required to attend and were incentivized to comply by the threat of hefty, income-based fines. The second aspect of the program was a massive re-vamping of the public-school system to incorporate whole mind-and-body wellness into the curriculum.

Personally, Marinette believed that private tutoring sessions for Chloe about the dangers of bullying and the rules governing polite social interaction would have sufficed, but the spotted-heroine had probably been happier than most Parisians when the first press conference outlining the initiative was held.  APP seemed like it would prove to be an effective means of cutting down the demand for the Miraculous Five, something she sorely needed given her current workload. Launching her own fashion line _and_ interning at Gabriel _and_ working part-time at the TS boulangerie to “pay” for rent while attempting to maintain her relationships was no easy task. She needed all the spare time she could get.

Since its induction six months ago, APP had proven to be outrageously successful. Conservative estimates credited the program with reducing the number of akuma attacks by over 75%, which led to huge improvements in Marinette's professional life. Unfortunately, the program had not been nearly so good for the girl's personal one. 

It wasn't because of the seminars; they were amazing. A theme was chosen each month and the seminar for that theme was given multiple times over the course of that month to give every Parisian ample opportunity to attend. The selected speakers were always extremely dynamic and were often former akuma victims who would use the situation that had led to their akumitazation as a framework for their lecture. Many of her former collège classmates had volunteered to teach. Juleka's presentation on embracing who you are in order to live a more authentic life had been particularly inspiring. Much of what she’d covered had resonated with Marinette, who spent most of the seminar reflecting on her early, calamitous excursions as Ladybug.

 The workshops were not as fun for Marinette, but she saw them as a necessary evil. They were a means of consolidating the information gleaned from the seminars and putting that information to practical use. For example, after the two-hour long workshop on mindfulness, she'd started setting aside at least 10 minutes every day for meditation. That workshop had been held the month Ivan gave a surprisingly moving lecture on anger management. Like the seminars, the same workshop was held multiple times over the course of the month to ensure attendance. 

 The workshop on conflict resolution had proven the most difficult to date. In a moment of masochistic insanity, Marinette had submitted a formal request to the APP Committee asking to be paired with Chloe. Very small was the number of akuma encounters that held a candle to the emotional intensity Marinette had experienced on the actual day of that workshop. However, in a wholly unexpected turn of events, she and Chloe had actually parted on good terms afterwards. Not quite as friends, but no longer enemies either. Now when they ran into each other, they would exchange a few pleasantries before going back to ignoring each other's existences entirely.

 Really it was the small group aspect that caused Marinette to despise APP with every fiber of her being. Despite the donations from non-profit groups and private companies, there was no way the government could afford weekly therapy appointments for each individual citizen, something that had been deemed a necessity. The APP Committee's brilliant solution to this funding problem had been to separate each Parisian into groups of 5-10 based on general demographics, availability, and therapist preference. Each group would then engage in weekly group therapy sessions. Citizens could only opt out of the small group sessions if they sent in proof that they were seeing a mental health professional on their own dime.

The algorithms developed to assign the groups had worked out improbably well. Most citizens had bonded with their groupmates and assigned therapist almost immediately and the safe and supportive environment amongst these groups allowed for effective therapeutic discussions.

 Marinette, however, was not in one of those high functioning groups. To her absolute and continuing horror, her Miraculous luck hadn't saved her from being assigned to the same group as one Adrien Agreste, and the coincidence was totally fucking with her heart. 

 

!@#$%^&*()

 

They’d dated for a few weeks starting in collège. No official label, just the occasional ice cream or movie, but definitely something more than nothing.

The biggest contributing factor had been Alya and Nino, who had become an item about six months after the incident with Animan. When the four of them hung out in a group, Marinette and Adrien naturally gravitated towards each other to give the lovebirds some space. Since the near constant exposure had allowed Marinette to come out of her shell around Adrien, and they always had a ton of fun talking to each other, going on dates of their own had seemed like the next logical step.

After a few surreal months, Marinette had actually been the one to break it off.

The realization that a relationship with Adrien couldn’t work hit her during their first year of lycée, when she found herself scrambling to come up with a good excuse to flee a restaurant midway through one of their lunch dates. It was the third time that week she had either cancelled or run out on him.

Before she could come up with something creative, the akuma had barreled into the restaurant, straight through a sidewall, and seized the closest patron as a hostage. That patron of course, was Adrien.

Marinette’s vision had gone red. The carefully crafted calm her alter ego usually displayed was nowhere to be found. The akuma was dispatched so quickly that day that Chat Noir never even had the chance to show up. After the encounter, however, he had given her an earful over the Bugphone for the amount of force she had wielded against the akuma. She’d been ashamed enough by her actions that she’d made a public apology on the Ladyblog the next day.

Marinette learned two things that day. One, she couldn’t fully commit to a relationship with Adrien as long as she was Ladybug. It was imperative that she keep her superhero identity a secret, which meant there would always be an unspoken distance between her and (almost) any romantic partner. Two, she was extremely prone to making mistakes where people she loved were concerned. People she had loved had, of course, been in the direct line of fire before, but the sight of Adrien being steadily crushed in the akuma’s giant hand, compounded on her already astronomical stress level and about 3 hours’ sleep led to a major Ladybug malfunction. She knew her basal stress level and hours of sleep weren’t likely to improve over time, so the injurious combination was likely to happen again. It was best to mitigate the chance of renegade Ladybug reappearing as much as possible by taking one of those factors out of the equation. If Adrien had any way to protect himself in the event of akuma attacks, this second issue wouldn’t be a problem. Alas, he had not been gifted with the power of a Miraculous and was just as vulnerable as any other citizen.

Since she couldn’t tell Adrien the truth about why she wasn’t interested in him romantically (since that was not at all the truth), Marinette used her dream of becoming a fashion designer as a scapegoat.

She’d spewed a bunch of bullshit about how she wanted to become a successful fashion designer on her own merit and how dating Adrien could tarnish that by either giving credence to rumors or by biasing those in the fashion industry who wanted to curry favor with Gabriel Agreste.

Adrien had been visibly hurt by her rejection, but was as kind and understanding as ever. Miraculously (pun intended), Marinette had managed not to breakdown until she was alone in her room.

By that time, Alya and Nino had also broken up. However, both relationships had split amicably and the four of them had continued to hangout as friends. These get-togethers were always bittersweet for Marinette. She looked forward to seeing Adrien, but couldn’t help the twinge of resentment towards Ladybug that also popped up when she spent time with him and was reminded that she still had more than just residual feelings for him.

As life pulled the four friends in different directions, they continued to stay in touch through weekly video chats. It wasn’t often that they could all be in the same place at the same time. As the years passed, Marinette’s feelings did too. Or so she had believed. Over the past several months the closeness of group therapy had been fanning flames she’d thought long extinguished.

 

!@#$%^&*()

 

After a few deep breaths and repeated positive affirmations, Marinette calmed herself down enough to enter the room where the group therapy session was already a minute underway. She said a quick apology, took her usual seat, and proceeded to avoid making eye contact with everyone present.

Ironically, the theme for today’s session was honesty. The entire hour was spent dissecting whether omissions were always lies, if lies were always bad, if the truth always set you free, et cetera, et cetera.

Marinette sat in horrified silence, watching the hands of the wall clock slowly eek along, until mercifully, “That’s all folks!” their assigned psychiatrist chirped happily. “I think we’ve had an extremely productive session today. Thank you to everyone who participated.”

If Marinette hadn’t already been reaching down to grab her knapsack from beneath her chair she would have flinched at the very pointed look being sent her way.

 For the past several weeks, Marinette had made a point of being halfway out the door as soon as closing remarks began, but on this day of all days, she accidentally knocked her bag over when she went to reach for it, sending several of her possessions spinning across the floor.

 As she rushed to retrieve her rolling belongings the group psychiatrist strode towards her.

“Marinette, may I speak to you?”

The hairs on the back of Marinette’s neck sprang to attention. She knew exactly what was coming.

“Sure, Dr. Lavillant. I have a few minutes,” Marinette said as she shoved the small sketchpad she had just rescued from the floor into her bag and spun to face her former classmate.

“First of all, I’ve told you a million times you can just call me Rose. Second, as I’m sure you know, we never completed last month’s requisite one-on-one session. Everyone else in the group has had their meeting with me, Marinette.  You never got back to me to reschedule and you’ve been rushing out of here for the past several weeks before we can talk. It can be as simple as a 15-minute Coffee Check-in, but it does need to happen.”

The reprimand was gentle, but Marinette recoiled involuntarily nonetheless. If someone had told her in lycée that one day Rose would be speaking to her with such straightforward, no-nonsense authority, she would have laughed out loud. Apparently, time, and professional school, could do unpredictable things to people.

Marinette let out a nervous chuckle and began to fidget. “Right. I feel really guilty about that, Rose. My schedule has just been crazy busy what with the internship and the online store and all the other APP requirements plus helping out the parentals…” She trailed off at the impassive expression on Rose’s face.

With a sigh she tried again, “Okay, I realize that a packed schedule is no excuse and in the spirit of honesty, I’ve been putting off rescheduling with you because I’m anxious about talking to a shrink one-on-one in my current state. No offense, but talking to someone who is trained to dissect your mind down to its very core is terrifying. Don’t get me wrong, our other monthly meetings were fine, I’ve just been more… stressed this past month than usual and I don’t really want to talk about it yet.”

Rose’s mask collapsed into a fit of giggles. Once she recovered she beamed that 100-watt, 100% Rose megasmile.

“Marinette,” she began, placing a comforting hand on said girl’s shoulder. “It’s really supposed to be more of a check-in session so I can better understand how you are fitting into the group dynamic, how the sessions have been going for you, and what you hope to get out of our future sessions. Some members do opt for a more in-depth one-on-one session, but each meeting is customized to suit your wants and needs. No psychological ‘dissection’ unless you ask for one. I promise.”

“What?!” Marinette’s mouth gaped open. “I’d ask why you didn’t tell me sooner, but I guess I never really gave you the chance. I’m really sorry, Rose. Would coffee a half hour prior to next week’s session work for you?”

“No apologies necessary!" Rose said. "Coffee next Friday is perfect. I’ll see you then”. With that, Rose turned to leave. She pause to look over her shoulder at Marinette before walking through the doorway. “Have a good week, Mari! Don’t forget to breathe.”

“Thanks, Rose. You too! Give Jules my best! I'm looking forward to working with her backstage during next week's show! Maybe she can touch up my hair too.” The two women shared a small laugh as Marinette fingered the frayed ends of her pixie cut. 

As soon as the sunny blonde was gone. Marinette let out the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. Rose would not pry into her secrets. At least there was one weight lifted from her chest.

“Hey, Marinette! Would you like to walk out together?”

Marinette jumped and jerked around towards the familiar male voice. Adrien had picked up her favorite pen and was holding it out to her.

She reached forward and timidly took it with shaking fingers.

_‘No I most certainly do – ‘_

“S- sure, Adrien!”

_‘What the… Stupid mouth! Stupid stutter! I am twenty-freaking-one. I should have better control over my emotions.’_ She could feel the vibrations of what could only be Tikki giggling inside her bag.

“Great!” Adrien replied, a smile touching the corner of his lips. “I’ll meet you outside then.”

As he headed out, Marinette scanned the room one last time for any rogue belongings. Satisfied that she’d recovered everything, she closed her knapsack, took a deep breath in, and followed one of the men she was in love with out of the community center.

She caught up to him as he reached the exit, giving a small, awkward curtsy when he held the door open for her. He chuckled as he followed after her and they began to walk side-by-side down the walkway.

After a few pleasantries, a semi-awkward silence befell the pair. In a panic, Marinette began to fill the void with word vomit.

“I never told you this, but I was surprised to see you in group that first day,” Marinette said. “I thought studying to become a social worker would include enough mental health training that you wouldn’t have to participate in APP.”

He chuckled and threw her a grateful smile for being the first to break the tension. “I wondered about that myself when they were first rolling out the program,” he started. ”The committee’s counter-argument was that most of our mental health training is focused on identifying and helping to improve other people’s problems, not our personal ones. I actually agree with them. I think the burnout rate among social workers substantiates that conclusion.”

 “Do _you_ ever feel burned out?” Marinette asked, turning her head to look at him.

A hint of pink tinged his cheeks. “Well, social work can be… emotionally exhausting at times. Especially when I feel like I’m not doing enough for the kids I’m supposed to be looking out for. Given my personality, that ends up being most days." He sighed and smiled to himself as he shrugged. "I guess I would say that I do feel burnt out sometimes. Truth be told, I think APP has been helping. Even if I sometimes, complain about how much time it takes away from work, I have felt more capable of coping with anything that’s thrown my way.”

 “That’s good to hear,” Marinette replied, peeling her eyes away from him and lowering them back down to the pavement, feeling guilty in more than one way.

“I…” she hesitated. “I know I’ve been really MIA recently what with the not walking back from therapy with you for the past few weeks and missing the last couple group chats with Alya and Nino, but if you ever need to talk... I want you to know that I’m here for you.”

“Thanks, Marinette, I really appreciate you saying that,” he started rubbing the nape of his neck, a nervous tic Marinette had long ago noticed he shared with a certain someone.  “To be completely honest, I was worried that you were upset with me about something. It feels like you’ve been avoiding me and I noticed that you haven’t been speaking up as much in group.”

She could feel his eyes shift over to look at her and knew that if she turned to face him she would see hurt concealed within his gorgeous emerald eyes. The fact that she could read him so well despite the front he constantly had up from years of acting as a carefully constructed, living embodiment of his father’s company only increased her feelings of guilt.

Marinette’s face flamed in shame. She turned her head to look at him again. She'd been right about what she'd see and it made her chest feel too tight.  

“Shit, I am so sorry, Adrien. I promise I am not upset with you. I’ve just had a lot of… stuff on my mind recently. Stuff I haven’t felt ready to talk about out loud, with other people. I tend to retreat into myself when that happens and avoid the people in my life who would be able to tell something’s up and pull it out of me. You can ask Alya. She goes bonkers when I fall off the grid like this.”

Adrien let out a surprised bark of laughter. “You have no idea how happy I am to hear that. I’m the same way when I’ve got things on my mind I don’t want to talk about.” He paused. “I actually sent in a transfer request the moment we were done with our first group session, because you are one of those people in my life too.”

Marinette couldn’t help the nervous laugh that bubbled out from between her lips. “I did too! I felt like the algorithm cheated me out of the opportunity to stew in silence amongst strangers when I need to internally process something.”

“Right?!” The look of relief on his face was overwhelmingly genuine. “I’ve been feeling guilty about the request for months.”

They walked in amicable quiet for a few minutes before continuing to update each other on the goings on in their lives.

Before they knew it, they were outside the Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie.

“I’m glad Rose caught you before you bolted,” Adrien beamed down at her. “I’ve missed our walks.”

“Me too,” Marinette said returning the smile. “I’ll try not to give in to my flighty lizard brain in the future.”

_‘Slash try to find another way to get over you besides outright avoiding you.’_

“Looking forward to full-executive-functions Marinette,” he laughed.

Goodbyes exchanged, Adrien started to lean in and Marinette found herself stretching up on her tiptoes towards him until their lips met in a chaste peck, on par with that of a couple kissing farewell. There was something completely natural and too familiar about it.

She blinked up at him with wide eyes and was grateful to see that he looked just as shocked as she did.

"I'm so sorry!" He said as he quickly pulled back from her and covered his lips with his hand. His cheeks were stained scarlet. 

"It's... okay," Marinette managed to squeak out. Based on how hot her face felt she knew she must be nearly the same shade of red that he was.

His hand dropped back down to his side. "No," he said vehemently, shaking his head jerkily from side-to-side. "I don't know what came over me. It’s like my body was just on autopilot."

Marinette waved her hands frantically through the air between them as though that could dispel what had just happened. “Mine too.”

_‘Maybe because of the similarities in height and build and hair color and the feelings I have for them both…’_  She paused, imagining what Adrien would look like in a leather cat suit then shook her head to clear away that ridiculous image.

“Let’s just forget this happened,” she continued, a little too loudly.

“I like that plan. I like that plan a lot,” Adrien replied, no discernible pauses between his words. He was looking everywhere except her. “I’ll see you next week, Marinette. Bye!” He turned and power-walked away from the bakery without looking back.

_‘Well, fuck,’_ Marinette thought watching him go, heart hammering so hard it hurt. _‘I have to tell Chat everything tonight.’_

 

!@#$%^&*()

 

To this day, Ladybug could not pinpoint the exact moment she fell in love with Chat Noir. She supposed it was somewhere between the much-needed pep talk he gave her during their second encounter with Stoneheart and their third date, A.K.A. the night she had first become consciously aware that her feelings had shifted.

She knew she had loved him for a long time. How could you not love someone who knew your most intimate secret, who was a constant source of support but still called you out on your shitty behavior when it was warranted, who you trusted with every fiber of your being, and who constantly put their life on the line for yours? But she hadn’t realized she’d fallen _in_ love with him until she saw third party evidence on the Ladyblog.

People said love was like being struck by lightning, and indeed that’s how it had been with Adrien. When it came to Chat, however, Marinette was reminded of gardening.

Somehow, that sneaky cat had managed to plant a seed in her heart without her knowledge. And only after the overbearing shadow of her love for Adrien was lessened, was the seed allowed to germinate and bloom.

Marinette had wallowed in self-pity for a month or so after breaking up with Adrien. Her state of misery had not been well-veiled as Ladybug and therefore had not gone unnoticed by her partner.

After a particularly rough akuma battle, Chat asked if they could meet at the top of the Eiffel Tower at sunset, “Just to talk, because you’ve been acting a little off lately” and Ladybug, tired of stewing over everything by herself, had agreed.

That evening she poured everything about the situation with Adrien out to Chat, save any details that could lead to the identification of her civilian self. She learned he’d gone through a similar situation recently, the only difference being that he’d been dumped before he’d been able to concoct a plausible reason for ending the relationship himself.

She felt a pang of something flash through her. Even though she constantly rejected him, hearing that he’d been seeing someone else fired her up a little.

She didn’t know if she was easy to read or if it was just easy for _Chat_ to read _her_ , but he frowned right after she bristled internally.

“You know,” he started, looking at her with sadness in his mask-covered eyes. “All the flirtation and declarations of love… They’re real. But you either push my feelings aside or outright deny them. Was I just supposed to pine over you forever?”

Ladybug flushed and cast her eyes down in embarrassment.

A second later Chat reached out and gently tilted her chin back up with his hand, careful not to scrape her with his claws, so that she was looking back into his too full eyes.

“I thought we were friends, My Lady, not just partners. Don’t you want me to be happy?" 

It was then that she realized that he was hurting way more than he let on. Not for the first time, she wondered what his civilian life was like that he was so adept at keeping up such a convincing mask in front of her.

Ladybug felt something warm and wet trickle down her face. “Of course I do!” she said quietly into the small space between them, voice wavering. She took a breath to try and steady herself before continuing. “And this girl… she made you happy?”

Chat gently brushed Ladybug’s cheek with the pad of his thumb, smearing the tears that had been trailing down the left-side of her face.

“Yeah,” he breathed out. “And I know I made her happy too. Apparently, alter egos and ambition don’t mix well when it comes to relationships though. We’re still friends, but… it’s not the same.” He dropped his hand and turned to look out over the city. The sun was minutes from slipping under the horizon.

They sat in silence as the sun completed its journey for the day. Chat’s gaze turned in the direction of the TS Boulangerie and Ladybug watching the shadows play across his face as the light swiftly changed.

As darkness fell and the street lamps and buildings below began to slowly come alive with electricity, Ladybug finally stirred. She reached forward and took one of Chat’s hands into her own.

He peeled his gaze from the horizon and turned to look at her, a question in his eyes.

“Would you give me another chance?” Ladybug asked.

The look of shock on his face was precious.

She pressed on. “Alter egos are the basis of our relationship, so they can’t get in the way. Actually, the fact that I don’t have to worry excessively over you when dealing with an akuma is a win in my book. And you… you make me happy, Chaton. You’re my friend and partner and I trust you with my life. I can’t tell you that I return your feelings just yet, but when I see you, I feel a light inside of me burn a little brighter. And when I talk to you I feel the rest of the world fall away. I have this profound desire to share everything we can with each other, even though I know in my head that at least one thing must remain secret for safety’s sake. I want to give us a chance at something… more. So, will you give me one more chance and let me take you out on a date, Chat Noir?” 

As her rambling speech progressed, the look of astonishment on Chat’s face slowly morphed. By the time she officially asked him out, he was grasping her hands in return and he had a small smile on his face.

It was the photo of their third date that had been posted to the Ladyblog, which brought the fact that Ladybug was in love with Chat Noir to Marinette’s attention. In said photo, Chat was standing on the edge of a building, arms thrown out wide as though he were trying to encircle the whole city in his arms. He’d been talking to her about all the wonderful and weird things he’d found during his nightly explorations of Paris.

He said he wanted to take her to see them all, that there was no one else he could imagine sharing the treasures of the city with than his most precious companion.

The line had been cheesy as hell, but she’d blushed anyway. That was the moment the photo had been snapped. When she saw the look she had been giving Chat as he essentially told her that she was _his_ treasure, she knew. She was in _deep._

On the next date, they shared their (second) first kiss and their secret romance had only continued to bloom from that point on. Well, as much as any relationship could bloom when it was constrained to akuma fights, costumed trysts around the city, and bodily explorations in pitch-black hotel rooms booked under playful pseudonyms, that is.

 

!@#$%^&*()

 

Fridays were reserved for weekly date night so the two heroes were meeting at their typical rendezvous point (and the site of their first date): an abandoned movie theater. 

Restless as she was, Ladybug got there almost a whole hour before their usual meeting time. At first, she paced back and forth across the roof, rehearsing what she planned to say over and over and over. When she got sick of hearing her own voice, she sat on the edge of the building with her legs dangling over and focused on her breathing. She was finding it impossible to keep the disaster scenarios from playing on repeat in her mind.

_‘Hopefully Volpina’s latest Hawkmoth lead is fruitful. How are Chat and I supposed to keep working together after this?”_

Fifteen minutes before date time, she saw a bouncing black dot on the distant horizon hurtling towards the theater. As the dot rapidly approached, it grew in size until she could clearly identify it as her boyfriend.

Her chest clenched tightly at the sight of him and she got to her feet, heart racing.

As soon as his boots touched down, they both cried out in unison, “I kissed someone today!”

Silence rang out for a few seconds as the words set in.

“What?!” Perfect harmony even under these circumstances.

Ladybug’s hand shot forward to cover Chat’s mouth. “Please, let me talk first. Okay, Chaton?”

He nodded before gently removing her hand and kissing the back of it. As he lowered their joined hands, he intertwined his fingers with hers and then gazed at her in anticipation.

She flushed under his stare. “Uhm,” she began.

_‘Great start,’_ her brain commented sarcastically. 

“I know this will sound weird, but to explain everything I’ve got to start back a few months ago, when APP was first implemented.”

A guilty look crossed Chat’s face at her introduction. She thought that was a little strange. She’d expected him to look more betrayed than anything at the hint that she might have been involved with someone else on the order of months.

Ladybug fought her instinct to ask what he was thinking about in that moment and forged on.

“Do you remember that guy I told you about on the night I asked you out on our first date? The one I had to break things off with because I realized how utterly impossible it would be for me to date a civilian?”

He nodded slowly and his eyes filled with even more guilt.

“Well, he and I were assigned the same therapy group when APP began. We had maintained our friendship over the years, but at the point when therapy started we weren’t hanging out much anymore, what with work and life and everything. So, when we were assigned to the same group, we started spending more time together. Small things like, meeting up for coffee before group and walking home together afterwards, stuff like that.”

Ladybug paused, giving Chat time to absorb what she was saying. His expression only becoming perplexingly more remorseful as her tale went on.

She didn’t want to say this next part. She didn’t think she could handle the hurt that was sure to overtake the other confusing emotions playing across his features.

“I realized a month ago that I still have… feelings for him,” she finally choked out.

And there it was at last, the hint of the heartbreak she had anticipated causing with her confession. Just barely recognizable in the curve of his mouth. So miniscule was the change that if she hadn’t known exactly where to look for it in his expression it would have gone entirely missed.

She averted her eyes. If she kept looking at his face she knew she would be concentrating more on monitoring his micro-expressions instead of her words. The rest of her speech poured out so quickly she could only pray he was still able to follow.

“And when I realized that a part of me still loves him, I started to avoid him as much as possible, but he caught up to me after the session today and he walked me home per our old routine and when we were saying goodbye at my door he leaned down a little and I reflexively tilted up and we kissed. Just a short goodbye peck, but a kiss nonetheless and I am so, so sorry. I still love you more than ever. My growing feelings for him haven’t changed the way I feel about you in the least. What I guess I mean to say is that, I would never leave you for him or anything like that. God, you must be so angry and hurt and…”

Because of her diverted gaze, Ladybug did not see the comprehension dawn on Chat’s face as he listened to the circumstances leading up to the kiss. As her words unfolded, his mind zeroed in on the fact that what she was describing was too coincidental to mean anything other than that their affairs were one and the same.

Chat’s lips crashed against hers, effectively cutting off her progressively more jumbled words.

She was startled but responded immediately, pushing back against him as she wrapped her arms around his neck. The kiss was surprisingly heated considering what she’d just been telling him. Her body burned beneath his touch and she felt a recognizable thrill shoot through her. A small part of her brain screamed that his lips felt too analogous to the ones she had kissed earlier that day, but she squelched it down and reveled in the physical feel of Chat instead.

As she was about to pull away for air, she noticed that her face was wet. She wrenched backwards and reached up to cup his face in her hands. To her astonishment, Chat was smiling broadly and laughing as tears raced down his cheeks.

“Chaton?” she asked tentatively, wondering if her confession had literally fried his brain.

“I’m so glad it’s you, Marinette!” he gushed, crushing her body against his in a bone-cracking hug.

She tensed instantly in his arms.

“Wha… but… how?!” she struggled against his hold, trying to take a step back so she could see him fully. He let her, but kept a firm grasp on her hands so she couldn’t run off before he could explain.

“The night you told me about your mystery boy, I told you that I had recently been dumped too. Well, the girl I was seeing was assigned to my APP therapy group and we’d been hanging out until a few weeks ago when she seemingly started to avoid me…”

Ladybug’s heart stopped.

“I know I should have been grateful, because I had been feeling so guilty about the fact that my feelings for her were back, but I confronted her about her behavior today as I walked her home…to the flat above her parent’s bakery.”

_‘There’s no fucking way…’_

“And I don’t know if it was the similarities in height and build or her short, jet-black hair or the feelings I have for you both, but I leaned down to kiss her goodbye. And it felt so natural and easy that I freaked out and took off instead of properly talking to her about it.”

And it was then that Ladybug saw the man behind the mask clearly for the first time. The wall in her mind that had been keeping his identity secret suddenly slid away to reveal the one and only Adrien Agreste. 

“A… Adrien?” she breathed, hardly daring to believe but somehow knowing that it couldn’t be anyone other than him. His smile grew even wider as he gave her a small nod of affirmation.

“Plagg, claws in,” he whispered.

Ladybug watched her partner disappear in a brilliant green light. As the flash faded, Adrien was left standing in front of her, a smirking 6-inch-tall black cat floating beside his head.

Now the cat was, quite literally, out of the bag. Their careful attempts to keep their civilian identities secret had finally failed after five, frustratingly long years because of one chaste kiss. However, Ladybug could hardly find it in herself to be upset about it. All the cautiously crafted reasons to keep her identity secret that her brain had come up with over the years were silenced as she oogled Chat’s unmasked face.

She was in so much awe that she almost forgot how to release her own transformation.

“Tikki, spots off!”

She felt her suit fall away and watched the wonder flood Adrien’s eyes as the truth was confirmed. After a brief moment of hesitation, they crashed together once more, bodies colliding and fitting against each other perfectly.

_‘I need to write the Mayor a thank-you note,’_ was Marinette’s last cohesive thought before she lost herself to the sensation of finally being wholly with the person she loved.

 

!@#$%^&*()

 

**Author’s Note:** What a struggle this has been! I came up with the idea for the APP months ago and loved the idea of writing a oneshot about the drama that might ensure if Marinette and Adrien were placed into the same therapy group. The story kept evolving as I continued to work on it, and I am so happy I finally finished it. I hope it brought you joy! Please leave comments, suggestions, and kudos to let me know your thoughts.

 


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